ROBERT ANDERSON (1917 - 2009)

Born in New York City, 28 april 1917, Died 9th Feb 2009. Educated at Phillips Exeter academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, 1931-35; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935-42, a.B. (magna cum laude) 1939, M.a. 1940. Served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, 1942-46: lieutenant; Bronze Star. Married 1) Phyllis Stohl in 1940 (died 1956); 2) the actress Teresa Wright in 1959 (divorced 1978). actor, South Shore Players, Cohasset, Massachusetts, summers 1937 and 1938. assistant in English, Harvard University, 1939-42; teacher, Erskine School, Boston, 1941; teacher of playwriting, American Theatre Wing, New York, 1946-51, and actors Studio, New York, 1955-56; member of the faculty, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1968; writer-in-residence, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1969, and University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Iowa City, 1976, Member of the Playwrights Producing Company, 1953-60; president, New Dramatists Committee, 1955-56, and Dramatists Guild, 1971-73; member of the Board of Governors, American Playwrights Theatre, 1963-79. Since 1965 member of the Council, and since 1980 vice-president, authors League of America. Recipient: National Theatre Conference prize, 1945; Rockefeller fellowship, 1946; Writers Guild of America award, for screenplay, 1970; aCE award, for television, 1991. Member, Theater Hall of Fame, 1980. Robert anderson, who has died aged 91, had a sign over his desk in his Manhattan apartment which read "nobody asked you to be a playwright", to remind him that it was pointless to complain about the problems many have in getting their plays performed. anderson once said: "You can make a killing in the theatre, but not a living." He certainly made a killing with his first mature play, Tea and Sympathy (1953), which became a worldwide hit, but found it a difficult act to follow.

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below is a list of Robert Anderson's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

Two sons try to save their home as the river keeps eroding the land it is on. They are hampered by their stern father who would rather the State took care of keeping the river at bay

Notes:

from novel Wreath And A Curse by Donald Wetzel

1st Produced:

arena Stage, Washington, D.C. 1952

Company:

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1st Published:

Samuel French, NY, 1955 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

set in the present, concerns an older couple about to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary and their son and daughter-in-law, whose marriage is pulling apart. The action is a series of sharp, short confrontations, which lay bare the lives of all concerned-their failures, their loneliness, and their quiet and desperate search for something to bring them alive again. Subtle and compassionate, yet unfailingly honest, the play shows its people both as they are and as they want to be, and illuminates the interior truths in which must lie the deeper meaning of human existence.

Notes:

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1st Produced:

New Haven, Connecticut 1971

Company:

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1st Published:

Random House, New York, 1972 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Balsam and Eileen Heckart, who have been wed 25 years, come to a store to pick out a new bed or beds. Should they buy twin beds or a double? They don't get much sales effort from the salesman, Grizzard, for the salesman is a pansy. Into the discussion, uninvited, comes a blonde young thing, Miss Dillon, who wants a big bed because she is all alone

Notes:

One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:

New York 1967

Company:

-

1st Published:

in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

This is the story of Gene, a widower, with an elderly mother whom he loves and an eighty-year-old father, whom he has never loved, hard as he tried. The father has been mayor of a small town in Westchester County, self-made and highly respected. Beneath these trappings, however, he is a mean, unloving and ungenerous man, who has driven his daughter away because of her marriage to a Jew and has alienated his son through his possessiveness, his selfishness and his endless reminiscences. Suddenly the mother dies, and Gene is faced with the responsibility of having the father on his hands just at a time when he wants to remarry and move to California. There are a series of dramatic confrontations when alice, the sister, who has defied her father, pleads with Gene not to take on the burden of the old man and ruin his life; when the penurious father and son have to pick out a coffin for the mother; and the final episode in which Gene tries once again to rouse in himself affection for his father and succeeds, but on

Notes:

Screenplay published New American Library, New York, 1970

1st Produced:

Philadelphia 1967

Company:

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1st Published:

Random House, New York, 1968 978-0994406084

Music:

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To Buy This Play:

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is light and humorous, but at base it is serious and touching as it shows Miss Heckart and Balsam discussing sex education of their almost-adult children, a girl and boy. Balsam is quite moving when he learns in a letter that his son is cutting adrift from the parental harbor.

Notes:

One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:

New York 1967

Company:

-

1st Published:

in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

- . . .off-off-Broadway is most renowned as the arena of the new playwright. Learn about [Mary Humphrey Baldridge's] skills with dialogue and plot. . .in GENESIS. . .mounted with style and skill at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse. . . Theater Week, Peter Filichia

Notes:

One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:

New York 1967

Company:

-

1st Published:

in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Laura Cunningham is an ageing and increasingly frail actress. Because of her frailty she has not performed for some time and lives surrounded by costumes and props from her great successes. Her nephew wants to move her into a care home - but she has other ideas.

Notes:

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1st Produced:

Televised 1991

Company:

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1st Published:

Samuel French Inc, New York, 1991 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

breaks in on a difference of opinion between George Grizzard, an earnest young dramatist, and Joe Silver, his matter-of-fact producer. Silver doesn't like the opening moment of Grizzard's play. a wife is having breakfast in bed and she says something to her husband, who is in the bathroom. So he comes out, jaybird naked, and yells to her. 'You know I can't hear you when the water's running.' Producer Silver doesn't think this confrontation is quite nice or necessary. author Grizzard insists that the scene is quite important-and, after all, it lasts only an instant. So a quarrel over taste develops, and a job-hunting actor, Martin Balsam, becomes involved. He eagerly begins to strip, demonstrating how he would handle the role. also involved is Melinda Dillon, the producer's secretary, who is described as 'a Bennington girl' and acts it. This is fine, light comedy.

Notes:

One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:

New York 1967

Company:

-

1st Published:

in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Christmas Eve in a New England Hotel and a chance meeting between two lonely people

Notes:

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1st Produced:

New Haven, Connecticut 1959

Company:

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1st Published:

Random House, New York, 1960 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

set in a chilling, computerized future, where marriage has been abolished, life is lived in mechanized motel rooms, and voluntary self-destruction is a citizen's ultimate service to the state. Yearning for the simple, forgotten warmth of family life, Sam Bradley seeks out an illicit, underground operation which provides for a surrogate domesticity-wife, children, dinner on the table. For a precious moment he is transported back into a way of life now lost but fondly remembered. But then his time is up and he must return to his electronic cell, to breathe the last of his allotted air and to cherish what memories remain before oblivion consumes him.

Notes:

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1st Produced:

New Haven, Connecticut 1971

Company:

-

1st Published:

Random House, New York, 1972 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

This was one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. The topic is sex, in all its mysterious and fascinating manifestations, and the treatment of this is so skillful, tasteful and explosively funny that the plays are not only captivating and touching but universal in appeal

Notes:

as the New York Daily News briefly outlines: THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION breaks in on A difference of opinion between. . .an earnest young dramatist And. . .his matter-of-fact producer who doesn't like the opening moment of the play. A wife is having breakfast in be

1st Produced:

Broadway, New York 1967

Company:

-

1st Published:

Random House, New York, 1967 -

Music:

-

To Buy This Play:

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies